Brothers and Bandages
by Marchling
Summary: Five times Kurt patches Finn up and one time that Finn returns the favor. Brotherly fluff!
1. Skull on Wood

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**Brothers and Bandages**

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_**Summary:**__ Five times that Kurt had to patch Finn up and one time Finn returned the favor._

_**Rating:**__ PG-13 (or the site equivalent), for some __**extremely**__ slight gore in some parts… really, it's nothing._

_**Genre:**__ Hurt/Comfort, Family, Friendship_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Glee, not even a little. Just playing._

_**Timeline:**__ Pretty random. I'm somewhat careful to keep from mentioning anything that might date it too much. After the Hudmel joining though, and before Kurt left McKinley._

_**Chapter Count:**__ 1/6 – I had intended to make this a oneshot, but it was getting kind of long. I also felt that the entries could pretty much stand as their own chapters, so I decided to go ahead and post each of the five and one by themselves. I'll post roughly a chapter a week, maybe a little sooner, because they're all written – they just need editing._

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**Chapter One: **Skull on Wood

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><p>Sometimes, Kurt almost envied Finn's height. Well, maybe not his exact height, because Finn was bordering on Godzilla proportions and Kurt had seen firsthand how hard it was to get used to that. Still, six feet would be nice.<p>

He got occasionally jealous when Finn grabbed something that Kurt had failed to reach even on his tippy toes as though it were nothing.

He was not, however, the least bit jealous of all of Finn's difficulties finding clothes that don't expose wrist or ankle, his growing pains or his gawky, uncoordinated issues that keep him from walking, dancing or really moving without knocking things over more often than not.

Even his Dad had noticed Finn's limbs of destruction and he'd discreetly moved a few of his mother's things to safer shelves with little more than a raised eyebrow. He warned Finn that the ceilings in the attic were pretty short and he'd better be careful if he didn't want to crack his head on an exposed beam.

Dad warned Finn and Finn nodded and even made eye-contact, which would indicate that he had both heard and understood Dad's message.

Which was why, two minutes into looking in the attic for some box of Carole's, Kurt was sadly _not_ surprised to hear the wince-inducing sound of skull on wood and the now familiar sound of Finn grunting in surprise and falling on his ass.

In another situation with another person, Kurt might have laughed and made a sarcastic comment, but it was Finn and that really _had_ sounded painful. It would be _so_ like Finn to give himself a concussion (_again, _from what Carole had hinted at).

"Ow." Finn said, laying flat on his back with dust flying all around him.

Kurt dropped to his knees next to Finn with barely a thought to his pants getting covered in dust and, Gaga forbid, _mouse droppings_ – a testament to how concerned he was. "Finn?"

"I didn't mean to do that." Finn groaned, hand on his forehead. He was thankfully not slurring his words, which worked in their favor.

"Of course you didn't." Kurt agreed, having noticed that Finn rarely meant half of what he did. If he could somehow get Finn to put even a little bit of thought into day to day things, their health insurance provider would probably send him a fruit basket. "How hard did you hit your head?"

"Hard." Finn replied, which Kurt probably deserved for being so vague.

"Hard enough that you might pass out?" Kurt asked, trying to pull Finn's hand away from his forehead. "Let me see." He muttered.

Reluctantly, Finn dropped his hand away, "I don't think I will?"

That sounded way too much like a question to Kurt. "That's not exactly confidence boosting, Finn."

"Give the spots a minute to go away, then I'll be sure." Finn answered.

That sounded like a plan, but there was still a pretty bad looking cut on Finn's forehead that Kurt didn't want to mention. Panic was nobody's friend. He looked around the limited space to see if he could find something to press to the cut to keep the bleeding to a minimum, but he didn't really trust the cleanliness of anything in the attic, even though things had only recently been put there. He wasn't taking any chances. The button-down Finn was wearing over a t-shirt was a marginally better bet, but Kurt was still a little iffy. They didn't have much choice though, not if he didn't want Finn to get his own blood in his eyes.

"What're you doing?" Finn asked when Kurt put his shirt to his forehead.

"Don't worry about it." Kurt advised before quickly adding, "How are the spots?"

Finn blinked a few times, "Better."

"Good enough to sit up?" Kurt asked.

Finn was familiar enough with head injuries to know not to nod. He just shifted so he could get his arms under himself, pushing off the ground before Kurt had a chance to tell him to take it slow.

"Whoa, Finn." He said, putting a hand on his step brother's back, as if that would stop him from falling flat on his back if sitting upright didn't go so hot.

Finn's eyes fluttered, but after a few seconds he seemed to get better.

"Think you can make it down the stairs?" Kurt asked, eyeing him warily. There's not a whole lot he can do if Finn didn't think he could. Sit there, pretty much, until someone came home to help or Finn's head stopped spinning long enough to let him move. He wouldn't make Finn move if he didn't think he could do it, if for no other reason than falling again could take a simple bump on the head right into concussion territory.

Luckily, Finn seemed to be seriously considering the question. "Yeah, I think so."

Which was how, about five minutes later, they had managed to make it down to Kurt's room. He completely was not willing to go down the next set of stairs to make it to the living room. It was much easier to sit Finn down somewhere padded, namely his bed, and get their supplies.

He briefly considered calling Carole, but really, it was nothing he couldn't handle and she would probably enjoy someone _else_ she could trust patching Finn up for once. He was sure that the school nurse had done so through the years, but there was only so much trust to be placed on _that_ particular position…

Kurt carefully loaded his arms up and went back to his room.

"Spots are gone." Finn said, sounding a little better. He'd definitely noticed the cut through. He had one of Kurt's many, _many_ hand mirrors in front of his face, checking out the cut in his hairline that had thankfully stopped bleeding. Finn noticed Kurt's glance, "At least it's in my hair where you can't really see it, you know, if it scars."

"Unless you fall prey to a receding hairline." Kurt pointed out, opening up a sterile wipe. He pushed Finn's hand away and started to clean the cut.

"Ouch, shit," Finn swore, though he was obviously trying to sit still and not pull away. "No fair throwing out stuff like that when you're pouring bleach in my cut."

Kurt rolled his eyes, "I'm assuming you know that this isn't really bleach?"

Shooting Kurt a look that might have _possibly_ made him feel a little silly, because really, they had pretty much stumbled into one of Finn's areas of expertise, Finn returned the rolled eyes. "Yeah, I know that. Still feels like it though."

Sailing right passed that, Kurt asked, "Are you going to tell everything with a skirt that you saved a litter of cuddly kittens from a burning building or something?"

"No point." Finn said, a little miserable but still sounding pretty used to it. "People see a guy my size and a smack on the head like that and it's pretty obvious what happened. Especially if that guy is me."

Kurt nodded sympathetically as he opened some gauze to tape over the spot, since there wasn't a bandage that would do the job with Finn's hair in the way. "Well, at least you didn't need an emergency room visit."

Finn brightened considerably, "Yeah, this is way better than going to the hospital, or even if Mom was here. You don't fuss as much. I'm totally coming to you from now on."

Kurt froze and closed his eyes, letting out a short, resigned sigh. Why did that sound way more ominous and prophetic than it needed to be?

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><p><strong>Reviews are love!<strong>


	2. Fists on Face

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**Brothers and Bandages**

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_**Summary:**__ Five times that Kurt had to patch Finn up and one time Finn returned the favor._

_**Rating:**__ PG-13 (or the site equivalent), for some __**extremely**__ slight gore… really, it's nothing._

_**Genre:**__ Hurt/Comfort, Family, Friendship_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Glee, not even a little. Just playing._

_**Thank you so much for all of the feedback for the last chapter! You guys rock!**_

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**Chapter Two: **Fists on Face

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><p>Kurt was putting the finishing touches on his after-school lunch, he was <em>not<em> eating that slop the cafeteria served, when Finn came home. Normally, Finn was all over his lunches, as if he hadn't eaten already. Finn was like a bottomless pit.

So when Finn yelled, "Hey!" and charged passed him with his hood up on a perfectly clear day and started to head up the stairs without so much as a glance in Kurt's direction, or even more telling, the _kitchen's_ direction, Kurt knew something was up.

"Stop." Kurt said, putting as much force in his voice as possible.

Finn did, halfway up the steps with his back to Kurt, but even then he hesitated, rocking back and forth on his feet.

"What's up with you?" Kurt asked, eyebrow raised, although the effect of it was lost since Finn hadn't turned around.

"Nothing." Finn said, sounding completely unconvincing. Finn was a pretty dreadful liar, as if his innate goodness and well, _finnocence,_ would shine through during the attempt and wreck it for him.

Kurt walked over to the couch and sat down, setting his plate on the table. "Yeah, that's a total lie. You haven't even asked if I'll make you something to eat. If something's not up then you're not Finn Hudson."

"Not hungry." Finn said, then made some sort of wincing noise.

"I'm not even going to dignify that with a witty response. Even _you_ have to realize that was a stupid thing to say if you wanted me to think nothing was up." Kurt said idly, only half-pretending to be more interested in his lunch. "So what is it? Hickey from Rachel? Did you fail that English test and you want to burn the evidence before Carole gets home?"

"Nothing, Kurt." Finn said, suddenly sounding tired.

Kurt perked up. "Turn around, Finn."

Finn didn't move.

"I will call your mother, seriously." Kurt threatened.

"Dude, don't." Finn said, shifting on his feet. "It's not a big deal."

"Then cut this mystery act." Kurt advised.

Finally, Finn turned to face him. Any bit of good humor or amusement instantly went away. Finn's eye was bruised and swollen, though not quite swollen shut. He'd seen Finn only a few hours ago, so there was no way that wasn't fresh. If it already looked that bad, it was bound to be pretty awful looking by the next day. Finn's lip was split and was still bleeding, if the way he kept licking it with his tongue every few seconds was any indication.

For a long moment Kurt was speechless. It was absolutely not what he had been expecting.

"It's not a big deal." Finn repeated, pulling his hood off and trudging down the few steps he'd gotten up before Kurt had stopped him.

Kurt shoved his plate onto the coffee table and jumped out of his seat. "Not a big deal? Are you high?"

Finn looked a little confused, the rhetorical, mocking question clearly going over his head. "No?"

"Sit down, Finn." Kurt directed firmly, but he pulled Finn's arm gently. "You're not hurt anywhere else, are you?"

"No." Finn answered and this time it wasn't a question.

Still, Kurt was freaked out enough to have to ask, "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

It wasn't like Finn wasn't an injury prone kind of boy. It wasn't like Kurt hadn't seen him bruised from practice or bleeding from some stupid little injury he'd brought upon himself… but other than his fight with Puck over Quinn and the lie about the baby, as far as Kurt knew Finn hadn't ever been injured because of someone else like that – even then it wasn't so much injuries as violence. It made his stomach churn just to think about it. Finn was his brother, he hadn't even been that for very long, and the idea still made him sick. For the first time, he had a taste of what his father felt about all of the awful things that had happened to him and that had to be a hundred times worse for Dad.

"Who did this Finn?" Kurt asked seriously.

"I said it's not a big deal." Finn answered and looked away. As if something like a black eye and a split, bleeding lip could be unimportant.

Kurt had been standing in front of Finn's spot on the couch, leaning down to get a better look at his bruised eye, but that made him stand straight. "That's not what I asked."

Finn didn't answer and that was kind of answer enough.

"Oh… Finn, please tell me this wasn't about me? Karofsky?" Kurt asked. He hated the way his voice broke a little.

"I'm not talking about this." Finn said, glancing up at him.

Kurt stared at him. "So what, you're just not going to tell me what happened? You're not going to tell our parents what happened? You think they're not going to make you tell them?"

Finn looked him in the eye, "They can try."

"You are the stupidest…" Kurt started, voice raising without him meaning for it to.

Looking away again, Finn cut in, "If you're just going to yell now, then can I go upstairs and wait for Mom to come home and yell? Because my eye is kind of throbbing and my lip stings and I'd rather do it all at once."

Kurt stopped talking abruptly. "Finn…"

"It's not a big deal."

"If you say that again, I'll castrate you." Kurt said, walking away from Finn. "Stay where you are."

Kurt tried not to think too hard as he gathered the things that they'd need. If Finn wanted to be a completely bizarre self-sacrificing idiot, then who was Kurt to care? That he did care, and he couldn't really fool himself into thinking he didn't, kind of bothered him. Still, Finn obviously wasn't interested in talking, so Kurt wasn't going to push… _much._

"Hold this to your eye," Kurt directed as he walked back into the room and passed over a bag of frozen peas to Finn.

When he'd walked in, Finn had looked a little worried, like Kurt was going to interrogate him over hot coals or something, but once he had the cold bag pressed to his eye, he practically sank into the couch, leaning back and letting his head fall against the back of the couch. "Oh yeah…" He said, wincing and moaning and smiling all at the same time.

"No Finn," Kurt drawled, "That wasn't the least bit obscene or pathetic, not at all!"

"Huh?"

Finn was clearly lost to the icy bit of heaven from their freezer. Kurt let him enjoy it for a minute, but the little smear of blood from his lip bothered Kurt, so Finn only got a minute or so.

A few months ago, he would have been ridiculously pleased to get to hold Finn Hudson's chin in his hand and tilt his head forward, but then, he would have been doing it for a kiss. Now, he was trying to clean off a bloody lip. Trying to be gentle, Kurt dabbed at Finn's cut.

"Hey, that hurts." Finn said, trying to turn his head and break Kurt's grip halfheartedly. If he really wanted to, he would have managed it just fine.

"It'll hurt worse if it gets infected. Try and leave it alone, okay?" Kurt said, pulling the towel away and standing up straight again.

Finn looked at him through one eye. "I can't really help the tongue thing," He said, his tongue poking out to worry the little cut as if to back him up, "But I'll try. Thanks for this."

There was a lot that Kurt wanted to say to that, _Who did this? I need to know if you got into a fight defending me. Don't do it again. Your mother is going to be so upset. It's going to be strange to see my Dad get all concerned and angry when it's not over me. If Puck hit you, I'm going to obliterate him, _but none of that was welcome, he could see that easily. So he went for the only honest thing he could say.

"You're welcome."

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><p><em>Reviews are love! Feedback is the source of all joy! You get the point… *winks*<em>


	3. Wrist to Field

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**Brothers and Bandages**

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_**Summary:**__ Five times that Kurt had to patch Finn up and one time Finn returned the favor._

_**Rating:**__ PG-13 (or the site equivalent), for some __**extremely**__ slight gore… really, it's nothing._

_**Genre:**__ Hurt/Comfort, Family, Friendship_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Glee, not even a little. Just playing._

_**Timeline:**__ Pretty random. I'm somewhat careful to keep from mentioning anything that might date it too much. After the Hudmel joining though, and before Kurt left McKinley._

_**Thank you SO much for all of the reviews for the last chapter!**_

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**Chapter Three: **Wrist to Field

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><p>Some nights when Finn had football practice, Kurt stayed after school to study in the library and gave Finn a ride home after. Carole made the whole thing sound so noble, but honestly, sometimes it was easier to study in a quiet library than have the distractions of his room. He was doing it as much for himself as he was for Finn, more probably. It was a guaranteed couple of hours to himself to get some real work done without new skin care products to try, Mercedes to chat with or magazines to read.<p>

He didn't do it often, but when he did, it was usually when he needed the distraction-free environment the most, so he was a little annoyed when his order NOT to text him unless there was death on the line was disobeyed.

**_Finn:_**

_Ill b done bit early, if u dont mind_

Kurt realized that perfect grammar was a bit much to expect in text messages, but lack of spelling or even an attempt at spelling really got to him.

**_Kurt:_**

_I thought we discussed writing in complete sentences with even a modicum of attention given to spelling when you're speaking to me. Try again. _

**_Finn:_**

_Cant. Only have 1hand_

That threw Kurt for a bit of a loop. Instead of continuing to text Finn and having to stare at his replies until they made sense, he just glanced around to make sure he had the place to himself before calling Finn.

Finn answered quickly, "I'm pretty sure you can't use your phone in the library."

"After hours," Kurt said, waving the concern away. "So why do you only have one hand?"

"I fell on the other funny. Coach thinks it's sprained."

Finn wasn't even finished with the sentence before Kurt started packing up his things. "Where are you?"

"Locker room,"

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It took Kurt less than five minutes to end the call to Finn, pack up his stuff and get down to the locker room. He, as always, used his sleeve to open the door, a habit even more important to remember after he'd gotten an inside look at the football team's habits. There could and should be exposés written about the vile habits of the typical teenage football player. Luckily, during their brief time sharing a bathroom, Kurt had managed to drill some better habits into Finn's head, but who knew if those had translated back into the locker room? Probably not, and even if they did, Finn hadn't been the nastiest on the team.

Kurt shuddered and neatly stepped around the door so none of it touched him.

Finn was sitting on a bench, open first aid kit in front of him, trying to wrap an ace bandage around his right arm with his left. It didn't look to be going so well. "They sent you down here to do that yourself?" Kurt asked, a little annoyed with Finn's supposed friends and the Coach.

"I said I could do it." Finn answered, "But I think I can't."

"Of course you can't, and definitely not as tight as it needs to be." Kurt said, glancing around the room for a safe surface to set his bag down on. There wasn't anything, really, so he sighed and just let it drop to the floor. He sat down in front of Finn and gently brought the injured wrist forward. It was already bruised and kind of swollen looking, Kurt winced at the sight of it.

"Of course it's my right hand." Finn muttered as Kurt started to wrap the ace bandage around it. "That'll be great for Ms. Lowe's essay test tomorrow."

Kurt glanced up at Finn, smiling sympathetically. "Tell her you need someone to write for you. You have that class with Rachel, right? Get her to help you out, she'll probably want to write the whole thing for you."

"I'm pretty sure she'll be watching us if I try that." Finn pointed out.

Shrugging, Kurt used the little metal brackets to secure his handiwork. "Give it a try. Worse comes to worse, you dictate it yourself."

"Thanks." Finn said, pulling his wrist back to himself.

Kurt smiled, "Well, if you get caught for cheating, it wasn't my idea."

"No," Finn said, "For this. I know you do not, under any circumstances outside of death or jail, want to be interrupted during library time." Finn said, quoting parts of Kurt's speech about it with a teasing smile.

Kurt blushed a little, getting his threats quoted back to him wasn't something that happened often. "Well, I can bend the rules occasionally, I suppose." Kurt said, aiming for 'benevolent leader'. Finn laughed a little.

"So how did you get so good with sprained wrists? Mine isn't throbbing half as much now." Finn said then winced as his mind supplied an answer, standing up and using his good arm to grab his bag.

"You do not know how long it took me to ride a bike." Kurt sighed. He could mention some dumpster dive landings gone wrong, but that would only cap off Finn's bad day, so going with something he'd barely mastered was probably a better idea. Besides, it was fun to throw Finn off his game just a little, occasionally.

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><p><em>When I chopped the story up because it was getting sort of ridiculously long, this was the only chapter I was concerned about, length-wise (I'm concerned about all of them in every other sense, lol). I know doesn't stand alone as well as the others, but there wasn't much to do, unfortunately. <em>

_Please, if you liked the chapter or have any constructive criticism, lay it on me!_


	4. Gravel in Skin

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**Brothers and Bandages**

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_**Summary:**__ Five times that Kurt had to patch Finn up and one time Finn returned the favor._

_**Rating:**__ PG-13 (or the site equivalent), for some __**extremely**__ slight gore… really, it's nothing._

_**Genre:**__ Hurt/Comfort, Family, Friendship_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Glee, not even a little. Just playing._

_**Timeline:**__ Pretty random. I'm somewhat careful to keep from mentioning anything that might date it too much. After the Hudmel joining though, and before Kurt left McKinley._

_**Thank you to all of the readers, reviewers and favoriters!**_

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**Chapter Four: **Gravel in Skin

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><p>Kurt leaned up against the door of his car, glancing at his nails and pointedly not watching Puck and Finn act like three year olds. He understood, intellectually, a teen boy's irrational need to physically bond with their friends – slaps to the back, cuffs to the head, an arm slung over the shoulder – but it never failed to amuseamaze him how far they were willing to take it. More than once he had watched Finn and Puck roll around on the ground pretending to hit each other and laughing. One would think that they'd had enough of the real thing between the whole Quinn-and-Beth debacle and football, but apparently not. Who was he to remind them that pavement hurts skin and rips clothes?

The pretending to not watch thing ended once Mercedes started texting him about the latest episode of True Blood. Sure the vampire thing was way overplayed and the accents made his ears cry, but, well… Eric Northman made all that worth it… even having to see Anna Paquin topless so often, and _that_ was really saying something.

He wasn't paying any real attention when Finn's battle cry turned into a sort of strangled yell and Puck winced in sympathy. He also wasn't paying attention when the scuffling noises stopped.

When he heard Puck's, "Man, that's kind of a lot of blood.", though, he definitely noticed.

"What blood?" He asked, head snapping up from his conversation.

Of course, one look at Finn and his question was answered. His step brother was sitting on the ground, looking at his own forearm that has been scraped raw by the pavement. It was not necessarily _gushing_ blood, but was kind of a near thing. Only Finn could slide across pavement hard enough and fast enough to take what, on anyone else, would have been a scrape and elevate it to, well… _that._

"Wow." Finn said, as he watched the blood drip down his own arm and stain his jeans.

Kurt jammed his cell phone into his pocket and was on his knees in front of Finn before he even scanned the ground for a clean-ish spot. "Let me see."

Puck shifted out of the way, looking a little queasy. "Why would you _want_ to look closer?"

"Oh gee, Puck, maybe because Finn is my brother and large quantities of blood escaping his body tend to concern me?" Kurt answered sarcastically. Finn snorted, which was reassuring.

Puck rolled his eyes as he leaned in closer, as though Kurt was reprimanding him in terms of devotion instead of stupid questions. "Dude… I think there's a pebble in your arm."

Finn groaned, "That's gross."

"Tell me about it." Puck agreed, looking a little green.

"Not helpful, Puck." Kurt says, trying to gently twist Finn's arm into the light. What he saw was not promising.

"How are we going to get it out?" Finn asked, sounding a little woozy and a lot worried.

The truth was, Kurt had already noticed other bits of gravel in Finn's skin, some looking pretty embedded. Finn must have really dragged his arm over the loose pavement. It wasn't quite road-rash, but it still had to be painful and besides that, there was pretty much nothing Kurt could do to fix it. He didn't really want to have to tell Finn that, though, especially since he was patiently waiting for Kurt's answer as though his brother had any idea what to do to get all that out of his arm.

With a heavy sigh, Kurt glanced at Puck. "Give me your shirt."

Puck raised an eyebrow. It said a lot.

"Trust me, Puckerman, I'm not looking to get a peek at your ab," Kurt said, doing everything he could to emphasize the lack of plural. "I need it to wrap up Finn's arm."

Unsurprisingly, Puck looked offended. "Listen, Hummel…"

Finn cut in, although it didn't appear that he meant to, "There's a pebble in my arm."

This time, the woozy was obvious… even to Puck. Kurt watched his eyes trace over Finn's arm and down to the little pool of blood forming underneath. It was getting kind of gory. Without a word, he whipped off his t-shirt.

Puck looked between them, "You need my help or you want me to stay and I've got it, but, um," Puck swallowed visibly and Kurt thought he was getting greener.

"Help me walk him to the car and you can go." Kurt offered, pretending to sound long-suffering and generous when he was actually quite glad to be rid of Puck. He could handle Finn just fine, even when the other boy realized where they were going, but that was when they were in the car. Until then it would be helpful to have someone around who actually had a chance of catching Finn if he started to go down.

Luckily, that didn't seem to be too much for Puck. He managed to heave Finn to his feet, and even checked to make sure Finn didn't feel too light headed to move. It was almost touching.

"Call me later, Finn." Puck said as he closed the passenger door. "Or Hummel," he added when he saw how pale Finn's face was.

"Will do." Kurt promised when Finn just kept looking at his own arm, which was steadily soaking through Puck's t-shirt.

Kurt pulled carefully out of the parking lot, determined not to cause more damage. He glanced at Finn, "How do you feel?" It was seriously starting to sound like a redundant question.

Finn kept staring at his arm.

"Maybe you shouldn't look." Kurt suggested, trying to follow his own advice.

"I don't think we've got a band-aid big enough for this." Finn said.

Kurt bit his lip. Finn might not catch on to things quickly and blood loss might start to be a factor, but sooner or later Finn was going to notice that Kurt wasn't driving to their house. "We don't." He hedged.

"Then what are we going to do? Stop and get one? Because I kind of want to go home. Maybe my Mom has something." Finn said.

If Carole had anything, it would definitely be words for her son. He would have to call her from the emergency room. "I think this is kind of over my head, Finn."

"That's okay. This shirt isn't a bad bandage until my Mom can find something else." Finn said, as if trying to reassure Kurt. "Um, Kurt?"

"Yes?" Kurt answered a little hesitantly.

Finn squirmed in his seat a little, "I'm trying not to get blood on your car, but it's kind of hard."

Kurt didn't bother to glance down. It wasn't Finn's fault, but he was still, maybe, possibly… _irrational_ when it came to his car being pristine. Finn knew it. "We'll worry about that later." He said.

"Wow." Finn answered, sounding a little bewildered, "How freaked out are you?"

The answer was _A LOT_, but it wouldn't help either one of them to admit it. "Very funny, Finn."

"I wasn't kidding." Finn said, "Did you notice we're going the wrong way?" He asked.

Well, at least he'd managed to get most of the way to the hospital before Finn figured it out. Kinder for both of them, really. "We're not going home. We're heading to the emergency room." He started, fully intending to soothingly tell Finn while emphasizing that a hospital visit would definitely gain him female sympathy from hot nurses and Rachel/Quinn/whoever the hell Finn wanted this week.

Finn wasn't having it. "This is not an emergency." Finn said as firmly as someone bleeding heavily could, which was to say, not very.

"Finn, you have gravel in your arm."

"So? Get some tweezers and get it out!" Finn almost yelled.

"Are you listening to yourself?" Kurt asked, trying to keep his voice from rising to match Finn's. "This isn't like that wayward eyebrow hair I made you let me pluck. This is gravel, embedded in your _flesh_. A doctor is required!"

Finn groaned, backing down instantly. "Oh god."

Kurt winced, that had maybe been a little harsh. "Sorry, but listen. Carole is going to be so sweet about this. You'll totally get ice cream and whatever you want for dinner. I bet my Dad will go get you any movie you want to see. All of the girls at school are going to be fawning over you and I'll totally spin this so you seem like a romantic hero, I promise." Kurt listed, his eyes going back and forth between the signs for the upcoming emergency room and Finn, who really wasn't looking any better. Between the miserable, freaked out expression on his face, the blood soaking Puck's shirt and the way his jaw was clenched in pain, Kurt was pretty desperate to land on something to perk Finn up. He might bitch about it, but it was profoundly easier to deal with Finn's injuries himself. Having to pawn him off to doctors and nurses made him feel awful. Which reminded him… "And the nurses! Think about the hot nurses, in um, tight uniforms? Blondes with short skirts?"

Finn abruptly barked out a laugh, as though he hadn't been expecting it. "Nice." He said, though it's not certain whether the hot nurses are nice or Kurt's pathetic attempt at comforting him with straight boy fantasies. Maybe both.

With a sidelong glance at Finn, Kurt pulled up along side the Emergency room doors.

"I don't want to go." Finn said, quietly. He wasn't whining, he was just stating a fact that really covered both of them.

"I know, me neither." Kurt admitted.

Finn sighed, "Are you sure I can't keep your shirt-band-aid and call it a night?"

"Positive." Kurt answered, wishing it were the other way around. He, just like Finn and possibly more so, really hated hospitals.

As though he was getting ready to martyr himself, Finn once again sighed. "Let's go."

Well, at least he'd managed to keep Finn from losing his head over a hospital visit. Now all he had to do was get the Frankenteen out of the car and into the hospital without any more skin-to-gravel-contact.

Somebody owed him _big_.

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><p><em>Reviews are love…<em>


	5. Chemicals on Hand

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**Brothers and Bandages**

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_**Summary:**__ Five times that Kurt had to patch Finn up and one time Finn returned the favor._

_**Rating:**__ PG-13 (or the site equivalent), for some __**extremely**__ slight gore… really, it's nothing._

_**Genre:**__ Hurt/Comfort, Family, Friendship_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Glee, not even a little. Just playing._

_**Timeline:**__ Pretty random. I'm somewhat careful to keep from mentioning anything that might date it too much. After the Hudmel joining though, and before Kurt left McKinley._

_**Thank you to all of the readers and reviewers! One chapter left! After this we'll get to Finn returning the favor.**_

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**Chapter Five: **Chemicals on Hand

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><p>Sometimes, Kurt was astounded at how fast juicy gossip could travel in their school. The smoke hadn't even cleared out of Mrs. Overton's chemistry room and Kurt had already gotten eleven texts about how Finn had blown himself up.<p>

He had to hope that it was just exaggeration and Finn didn't actually manage to set fire to himself. He was also seriously considering getting their parents to verbally whiplash Mrs. Overton for allowing Finn anything with combustion properties. Had she even met Finn? How had such a mix sounded like a good idea? The least she could have done was pair him up with some grade-obsessed geek who would have known better than to let Finn have too much responsibility. No, she put him with Puck… they were lucky Hazmat wasn't necessary.

Still, he was the only other member of the Hudson/Hummel family on the scene and, knowing Finn, it was probably vital that he make it to the chem room before too much went down.

Kurt didn't even have to work hard to clear a path through the throngs of idiot oohing and ahhing over some little (_hopefully_) chemistry mishap. They cleared pretty easily for him and in what had to be less than ten minutes from the initial blow up, Kurt was in.

"Finn?" he called as he looked around the room for his brother. It generally wasn't hard to find him, considering how he towered over people, but Kurt wasn't, for once, scanning low enough. Finn was sitting alone, which kind of pissed Kurt off. Clearly Finn was shaken by what had happened, it was even more irresponsible for him to just be shuffled off to the side. Puck wasn't around, so maybe he'd been injured and first thoughts were on him, but it was still grating that no one was even _sitting_ with Finn.

Kurt pushed passed a pair of teacher's aides that were trying to clean up whatever mess had been made, "Hey, Finn." He greeted, leaning sideways to get into Finn's line of vision.

Finn looked startled, like he hadn't noticed Kurt until that second, even though he'd called his name before. "Oh, hey,"

"I hear you blew yourself up." Kurt joked, sitting next to Finn.

"From who?"

With studied casualness, Kurt shrugged, "Oh, you know, just a few people… the entire glee club, a few Cheerios, a couple of the more evolved guys on the football team, Mr. Schue, seven janitors and our representative from the insurance company. Nobody really."

Finn snorted, "Sure, nobody."

"So what happened?" Kurt asked, nudging Finn's arm with his shoulder.

Finn awkwardly rubbed the back of his head and messed up his hair in a way that screamed 'embarrassed', "I might have mixed up the bottles."

"And the result gave you _that_?" Kurt asked, grabbing the hand that Finn had just exposed. "That looks like it hurts."

It honestly did. There was a patch of skin pretty much burned away on Finn's hand. It was small, probably only an inch or so long, but it still looked awful and huge and… _angry. _

Finn shrugged, "Yeah, it kind of burns. Puck's is worse, though…" He genuinely shuddered, but it still looked like a Rachel-Berry-theatrical-special. "_Fingers."_

Kurt wasn't sure entirely what that meant. Had Puck gotten burnt on his fingers? Hell, if Finn and Puck were given chemicals, it was truly possible that Puck no longer _had_ fingers. Just the thought made Kurt want to shudder too, so he didn't ask. Puck was now obviously somewhere else, getting taken care of. Finn was his concern. "Hey, lab coats!" Kurt called to the two teacher's aides.

"Kurt!" Finn said, sounding a little awed, albeit scandalized.

The two looked up at him. Kurt raised an eyebrow, "My brother was burned, he requires some attention."

"The other kid is with the nurse…" One of them started.

Kurt made a motion with his hand to physically indicate how little he wanted to hear her incompetent little voice. "I figured that. I don't suppose it would be too hard for one of you to fetch us a first aid kit, would it? I mean, caring for students and their health is supposed to be what you're working towards, isn't it?"

They trade glances.

Less than five minutes later, Kurt had his kit. "Much better," He mumbled under his breath.

"That was pretty awesome." Finn admitted, "But you are so dead if they tell Mrs. Overton."

Kurt gave him a withering look, "And I'll be able to say that the entire school was so focused on one injured student, they neglected the other, as if they couldn't have gotten someone else to help you. I'm pretty sure basic first aid is within the capabilities of at least a _few_ of the teachers… the coaches at the very least."

"Uh, I'd take you over Coach Sylvester any day." Finn said, kind of needlessly, in Kurt's opinion. "In fact, I think I'd rather lose my arm than let her look it over."

Finn sounded so serious, Kurt couldn't help but laugh. "I don't think she's quite _that _bad, Finn. Especially if we're comparing her to amputation. Besides, you can't sing with your arm, so she probably wouldn't use it to sabotage Glee. You'd be reasonably safe."

Finn still looked uncertain, but Kurt wiping his cut down with antiseptic changed his focus pretty quickly.

Kurt would have bet that Finn would have whined about it, since he didn't respond well to injuries in general, but he just clenched his teeth and said nothing when it stung. The rare display of stoic manliness somehow made Kurt feel like being gentle as he finished cleaning the cut.

"You should totally be a nurse."

A raised eyebrow was the only response.

"I mean it, Kurt. You'd be totally good at it. Harsh and in a patient's face to make them do the right thing half the time and kind of nice and soft about it the other half of the time." Finn defended.

That was actually kind of flattering, even if medicine wasn't a profession he would get into under any circumstances. "Can you imagine me in scrubs?" Kurt asked, even giving a _true_ theatrical shudder.

Finn smiled tightly, "Okay, fine… maybe you could bedazzle them?" He suggested. At Kurt's look, he moved on, "I'm just saying. You'd be good at it."

"Probably not. I don't think I could muster up any caring for some random person. If I'm good at moping you up after yet another moment of thoughtlessness, it's because you're my brother and I think it's part of the job description." Kurt said, smiling lightly.

Finn didn't say anything to that, which turned out to be okay because Kurt was finished with his bandage. He'd barely gotten to smooth the thing down for a final inspection before Mrs. Overton rushed back in the room, eyes scanning for Finn.

_Finally. _

Kurt didn't _necessarily_ hand Mrs. Overton her own ass like Finn said he did, but it was close enough that he felt pretty good about it after. That was probably part of the brother job description too, and it was way more enjoyable than fishing pebbles out of Finn's arm or dealing with the aftermath of chemistry gone wrong.

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><p><em>One more chapter left!<em>

_Please let me know what you think thus far!_


	6. Returning the Favor

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**Brothers and Bandages**

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_**Summary:**__ Five times that Kurt had to patch Finn up and one time Finn returned the favor._

_**Rating:**__ PG-13 (or the site equivalent), for some __**extremely**__ slight gore… really, it's nothing._

_**Genre:**__ Hurt/Comfort, Family, Friendship_

_**Disclaimer:**__ I do not own Glee, not even a little. Just playing._

_**Timeline:**__ Pretty random. I'm somewhat careful to keep from mentioning anything that might date it too much. After the Hudmel joining though, and before Kurt left McKinley._

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><p><em><strong>A massive final thank you to everyone who has read, put this on a favorite's list andor left feedback. The response has been great. Thank you so much!**_

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**Chapter Six: **Returning the Favor

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><p>Finn, Carole and some of the other New Directions had forgotten that it wasn't just Karofsky that was the problem. In Finn's head, Karofsky was kind of like Darth Vader: totally evil but, possibly, with a core of good. They could either break into that core of good (unlikely) and Kurt wouldn't have to worry about him anymore or they could find a way to get rid of him and Kurt wouldn't have to worry about him anymore (only slightly more likely).<p>

That wasn't really taking into account, though, all of the other guys standing behind Karofsky. Maybe some of them were like Finn himself, kind of just going along for the ride and ignoring they way that their stomach twisted, but that wasn't the case for all of them and Kurt knew it. There had been plenty of times that the others had done awful things to him and Karofsky hadn't been anywhere around.

So the look of shock on Finn's face, there for only a split second, when he finds three of the other guys from the football team throwing him down onto the ground with Karofsky nowhere in sight is kind of pathetically endearing in a way that only Finn had mastered.

Finn just kind of lunched forward and the head guy, Dean Carter, matched him, already talking. If the cut above his eye and his bruised wrist didn't hurt so much, Kurt might have snorted at the patented vitriol coming out of Carter's mouth. Honestly, couldn't they ever come up with anything more threatening than the 'us vs. them' garbage that was inevitably followed up with a nice heaping side of homophobia? It had passed sad years ago and had been steadily working its way though pathetic ever since.

Finn didn't listen long. He just grabbed the back of Carter's neck and pulled him in for what Kurt thought, only for a split second, was going to be a kiss. _That _would be a fun way to get any football neanderthal's attention, but probably ultimately a bad move. Either way, Kurt wasn't sure how he'd feel seeing Finn kiss some guy. Too weird, on _so_ many levels.

Luckily for everyone, Finn didn't kiss Carter. He just got close enough to say something that Kurt didn't catch. Too bad… with the way Carter paled, it had probably been pretty good. Finn was occasionally surprising like that.

Carter sneered at Finn, but he waved his cronies away and left the hall without even looking back at Kurt.

It almost felt anit-climactic.

"What did you say to him?" Kurt asked the very second Carter had turned the corner.

"Nothing." Finn said, sounding a little distracted. "Come on."

His long legs cut the distance between them in seconds and Finn reached down a hand to haul Kurt to his feet, although it probably wasn't much of a haul on Finn's part considering their relative sizes.

"Come on where?" Kurt asked, a little surprised when Finn didn't let his hand go. "Are you holding my hand?"

Finn didn't answer. Or at least, he didn't answer Kurt's question. He had one of his own, "Is that first aid kit still in your car?"

Kurt had always kept a basic first aid kit in his car because it made his father feel better. After the "pebble incident" though, he'd traded in for what had to have been the industrial model. Kurt was pretty sure he had enough gauze in that thing to pack a gunshot wound and that wasn't even taking into consideration all of the other obscure medical supplies jammed in to every available bit of space. "Of course I do."

"Good." Finn answered shortly, slipping out one of the doors to the parking lot that wasn't generally watched. He kept holding Kurt's hand as he pulled him to the car and let it go (_finally_) to open the trunk. "Sit."

Sure it was his own car, but his pants were a wool blend and sitting on such a dirty…

Finn saw the hesitation and cut him off, "Seriously, Kurt?"

Still, he just grabbed the first aid kit and closed the trunk again, opening the passenger door in back and gesturing to the seat. "Sideways." He directed. "I guess the trunk is a little dirty and you do ruin enough pants for me so… compromise."

Kurt was a little touched. Finn so rarely understood his dedication to fashion. He sat down and briefly grinned at Finn. Now they were almost evenly matched, height-wise, which was a rare treat outside of staircases.

Finn opened up a little packaged sterile wipe and took only a second to warn him before gingerly swiped at the cut, "Gonna sting. Bleach, remember?"

Kurt couldn't bring himself to return that grin. It was all too eerily similar and he couldn't handle the reversal of positions. "Aren't you going to ask what happened?" He asked, a little more nasty than Finn probably deserved.

"Seems a little obvious." Finn answered, "If you want to tell me, though, you can. Dean's a dick." That last bit seemed to be tacked on as if to give Kurt an out.

Kurt took it, "He is a dick… so how could you have known what to say to get him to leave like that?"

"I _am_ the captain of the team," Finn answered, "Part of that is knowing how to push everyone, but it only really works for some guys."

"Peons like Dean and not the real degenerates like Karofsky." Kurt summed up, a little bitterly.

Finn didn't say anything, but he didn't really have to. Karofsky sucked… what more was there to say? A lot of sentences that started with _I would_ or _I wish_ or _That jerk_ weren't going to solve anything. They weren't even really going to make anything better. Strangely enough, this time, having Finn with him _was _making it better. Maybe it was because they were brothers and it was still kind of a novelty or maybe it was because Finn had once been part of the cause of his torment and now he was cleaning up after it, completely on his side, that made him feel better, but it didn't really matter. Kurt felt any residual anger bleed out of him.

"Well, I don't think it's going to scar…" Finn said, smirk turning a little vicious, "Receeding hairline or not."

"I knew this was too sweet to last." Kurt groused, "So really, what's up with your Florence Nightengale impression?" Finn looked confused so Kurt elaborated with a sigh, "A nurse, Finn."

"Um, I thought it was more of an impression of you." Finn said, gently applying the butterfly bandage over the cut with fingers that should have been too big and cumbersome to pull it off, "I mean, if I can come to you then why can't you come to me?"

There was nothing to say to that, honestly. It was so… _Finn_ and good and made him feel like a real brother. Sure, there was a side helping of _How could I have been attracted to a boy that I react to roughly the same way that I do for puppies sitting next to ducklings while still finding him a little densely impossible? _but that was really just par for his life course.

"Hey," Finn cut in suddenly, "Do you want me to go around telling guys that you saved… um, what was it? A box of kittens?" Finn's scrunched his face up trying to remember, "Yeah, a box of kittens from a fire. 'Cause, bro, I totally will. Get you some points, right?" Finn waggled his eyebrows ridiculously.

Kurt shoved Finn back so he could jump down, "Oh my God, Finn."

"What?"

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><p><em><strong>I really hoped you all enjoyed the story!<strong>_

_Please, as a parting gift, let me know what you thought about the story. Would you like to see any more from me about our Hudmel boys? Any and all feedback (well, any and all constructive feedback!) is so __**beyond welcome and appreciated!**_

_Thank you again for all of the reviews/comments/additions to favorites/alerts list! _


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